At present the governments of several cities are distributing small bags made out of polymeric film, with the purpose of allowing the owner of the pet during its periodic walks to retrieve the pet's solid waste deposited on the sidewalks or parks, by introducing his or her hand inside the bag to pick up this waste. This operation is generally felt to be unpleasant and it is resisted by the pet owners.
Another system for the retrieval and disposal of the solid waste of pets consists on taking along with the pet a small shovel and brush or equivalent instrument. The inconvenience of using this instrument resides mainly in issues of hygiene, because the employed instruments get dirty and contaminated.
Lately various devices have been created to fulfill these ends, such as devices that have two opposed jaws actuatable from the upper end of a rod. These devices also have problems of doubtful hygiene, since during their operation they become soiled and contaminated.
There are also devices having an end profiled as a shovel that is covered by a disposable bag and automatically capable of sweeping up the droppings between this shovel end and another disposable bag. The inconvenience this known device has is that, for each operation, two different bags need to be fitted and used, while the bag containing the droppings must be removed and closed manually, thus presenting the same hygiene problems, so it is not what can be termed “user friendly”.
Undoubtedly, as much for hygiene as for aesthetics reasons, it is extremely desirable to have a device that is able to place into a bag the pet's droppings and other objects prone to provoke injuries during their handling, maintaining the device absolutely clean and uncontaminated, and this device must be able to perform the collection into the bag and closing of the bag without the direct intervention or contact with the user's hands.